Chipolopolo coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic has finally put pen-to-paper on his two year contract that was witnessed by Sports Minister Emmanuel Mulenga.

A beaming Mulenga welcomed Micho to Government Complex, six months after the Serbian arrived in Lusaka.

During a signing ceremony attended by FAZ president Andrew Kamanga, his deputy Rix Mweemba and Deputy General Secretary Joseph Chimpampwe and National Sports Council acting Secretary General Raphael Mulenga, Micho expressed delight at finally signing the contract.

“Firstly, I would like to welcome Mr Micho to my Ministry, sir you are most welcome and as government, we will give you the support you need and we will make your work easy,” Mulenga said.
“We will also make sure that we work hand in hand with FAZ in attending to the challenges you are going to face in this country. His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia (Edgar Lungu) who is patron of FAZ welcomes you to this nation and believes that you can deliver and can meet the expectation of the people of Zambia in making sure that the glory which we hard in this nation is retained.”

The Minister underscored the government’s expectations of the Serb with his technical bench.
“It is our hope that you will use the privilege of the resumption of football under the new normal of living with the (coronavirus) pandemic to monitor the capabilities of players in the local league and professional players from around the world to assemble strong teams which will deliver to the expectations of this nation at CHAN and qualify to the AFCON as well as the World Cup,” he said.

Micho re-emphasized his seven step technical master plan that has put qualification to the Qatar 2022 at the apex of his targets.

He said that with an already well-grounded youth structure that had seen Zambia dominate the region at u17, u20 and local players he would build a strong and competitive Chipolopolo.

“We will be having a set of friendly matches in front of us and we want to go step by step to inject the confidence inside our players to make them aware that every single step they do for the nation and the sacrifice they give in every match will be a step to build the confidence to the CHAN in Cameroon, the Africa Cup of Nations and on the wings of confidence to reach the World Cup,” said the man affectionately dubbed the Serbian Wolf.

“If we succeed, it will be all of us. If we fail it will be myself but with the way things have been done before and the way we are doing things in the same spirit to retain Zambian football where it belongs; from the government, FAZ, technical people all over the country and players that are also happy of success, because they want to repeat the success that has been achieved and outmatch it by going to the World Cup for the first time is something that will drive us to the right direction.”

Micho arrived in Zambia on February 3, 2020 and has been without a contract for five months.

FAZ has been paying their USD15, 000 of his USD25, 000 contract as they waited government to commit to paying him.
His technical bench comprises his first assistant Dushan Stojanovic, goalkeeper trainer Miroslav Stojnic and local assistant Oswald Mutapa.

Micho takes over from Belgian Sven Vandenbroeck whose contract was not renewed in March after Zambia failed to qualify to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.